Christmas in July
by Romance on Express
Summary: A blizzard hits the detective's hometown at an unexpected time. Botan is sent in to investigate.


Fills the femslash february trope square Snowed-In.

* * *

A harsh chill fell over the city, followed by a constant snowfall of thick, fluffy flakes. In hours everything would be covered in pure white, layering all surfaces with half a foot of snow or more. Late night party-goers and early daybreak workers left their shelters in shock, while meteorologists were called in to comment on the unexpected weather over morning radio programs.

The temperature continued to drop while the snow piled up, and by full sunrise the wind blew it into the areas under awnings and full, tall trees. Schools cancelled and adults called into work as cars tried and failed to start and buses attempted to plow through the build-up on the roads, running off their schedules.

Keiko watched the storm pick up speed from the bedroom window, awoken by the cold that seeped into the apartment she shared with Yusuke. Her fiancé slept through the sudden change in temperature, but Keiko had to get up to turn on the heater.

Loose panes clacked in their housings while branches knocked against them, sounding for all the world like a broken percussion piece. Keiko drew her robe closer around her chest as whistling howls accompanied the clatter, feeding her imagination of what it would be like to stand outside in the blizzard.

As the clouds began to lighten in a weak show of sunrise Yusuke joined her, kissing her cheek and wrapping his arms around her from behind. He paused in his greeting as his eyes took in the sight of frost forming at the sill and the white out beyond it.

"Huh."

"It started an hour or so ago, I think."

"Fast storm."

Keiko reached for his hand as she relaxed against the heat at her back. "I think we should call Koenma."

"Yeah, and cancel the beach trip."

Keiko glanced at the calendar with the day's schedule mark on it. It was supposed to be early summer.

-—-—-

"What do you mean, 'it might be demonic'? Of course it's demonic! This kind of freak weather doesn't happen around here!"

"We're still not exactly sure," Koenma replied, looking as unimpressed as any toddler could by Yusuke's outburst. "From what we can gather, the storms have been moving in and out of the mountain region North of Genkai's."

Yusuke turned his head from the communicator as a heavy thump sounded from outside. On the sidewalk were a bunch of kids, wrapped in scarves and coats, throwing snowballs at each other and stumbling in the drifts. The tree by the window was taking the brunt of their bad aim, dumping piles of snow and bits of flash-frozen leaves as it was disturbed.

"Genkai's, huh?"

"I've sent Botan to do some reconnaissance since I figured the rest of you might have a hard time getting there."

"Yeah, well I hope she can handle the wind. It's pretty nasty down here."

Koenma waved a dismissive hand. "She's handled worse."

-—-—-

Above the storm the sky was alight with the steadily climbing sun, and the air was hardly any colder then it would seasonally be at that altitude. The clouds bore a tint of gray, heavy and thick with gathering crystals. Under Botan's dangling feet the strangely isolated cloudscape stretched into a falsely solid surface that dipped and rippled as the winds below shifted.

It very nearly looked like home.

The ferry girl hovered almost perfectly centered to storm's relative eye, readjusting her earmuffs and knotting her scarf tightly around her throat and face. Her oar bobbed along the air currents like a boat in a tide, but Botan was confident that she would stay reasonably on course. _Besides_ , she thinks, _once under and in thick of the gales it would hardly matter how accurate I am_.

Botan lowered a borrowed pair of ski goggles from her bangs to her eyes, gripped her oar tightly, and dived straight down. Almost immediately she was buffeted by the winds, ice pelting her and blowing into the bits of her clothes that weren't snugly secured. What bits connected to her skin melted and reformed into larger chunks, numbing her wrists and ankles and waist. Her burgundy scarf whipped behind her, dragging back and tightening around her mouth.

She wrestled with the oar to keep in descent as the updraft tried to lift her back against gravity, but Botan was a professional who had hauled souls through worse conditions in the past.

Eventually she broke through to relatively open air, leveling off as snow drifted around her in the biting wind, a gentle breeze compared to what she had just fought through. Botan took the time to double check where she had ended up, pawing at her scarf to loosen it a little.

In the distance she could sense the barrier of Genkai's land, and after scraping off the snow and ice from her goggles she turned towards the opposite of that direction, which looked to be the far off hills and valleys that led into the mountains. She was way off course, having intended to be closer to the temple, but that suited Botan just fine. This way the ferry girl was closer to the suspected source of the storm.

From where she hung in the air she couldn't see anything else particularly telling about the area, other than the fact that the wind was blowing the wrong direction to the mountains.

The oar wobbled as she nudged it towards the forest. There was a cabin near the outskirts of Genkai's land that some friendlier demons were permitted to stay at, which to her seemed as good a place as any to start looking for the cause of the unseasonable flurries.

Passing through the barrier without incident and drifting lower towards the treetops Botan scanned the land below her, noting how little green there was left exposed. It was difficult to tell that the weather was out of sorts for this time of year – the leaves and blossoms of the fruits trees were completely buried, and the underbrush was a shadowy white that packed over moss and ferns. The birds and other critters were nowhere to be found, likely migrated out of the area of effect or, if not, hopefully hiding in whatever shelter they could find.

Since she didn't have a clear landmark for an exact direction it took Botan nearly twenty minutes to find the cabin. From her position above the yard it looked empty – the windows were dark and there was no smoke coming from the chimney. It was half buried on all sides, ice crystalizing the panes in layers.

Botan neared one, rubbing at the coating to try peering inside. There was a faint light, but it looked to be coming from a room further in. Otherwise the interior was obscured by the frost.

She pulled away and looped around the building, gauging the best way inside. The windows would be latched and sealed shut, whereas the door was almost missing from the front porch save for a foot that hadn't been submerged in snow. Short of breaking a higher situated window (and incur Yusuke's wrath of replacements and payments) the clearest way seemed to be from the chimney.

As Botan touched down on the roof her feet and legs sank into the snow. She silently cussed to herself as it seeped under her jeans with every trudging step. The oar was put aside so Botan could gather the ends of her jacket to sweep away the snow on the lip of the chimney, after which she leaned over it to look inside. There was no heat coming from it so the ferry girl double checked the seal of her goggles before swinging her legs in the brick hole and jumping in.

When she landed in the, thankfully unused, fireplace a cloud of old residual ash puffed around her, choking her momentarily. The coughs she made were loud, and she had no doubts that her landing would have alerted anyone nearby.

Caution already lost to her, she blindly crawled out of the fireplace then pulled off her sooty goggles.

"Hello! Anyone home?"

There was no immediate answer, so she stepped out into the hallway and looked around.

It felt significantly colder, but the air in the cabin held a preternatural stillness that impressed upon her as she moved. Any glass she passed glistened with an undulate effect of ice and strain. A light powdering of snow lay like a carpet everywhere, easily disturbed by her footfalls. Botan felt like she was breaking into a sanctuary.

"Hello?" she called as a sense of unease grew at the apparent emptiness in every room. She pulled her dirty scarf away from her mouth.

"Is anyone here? I'm a friend of Genkai's."

"Botan?" a slight voice responded from her left.

The ferry girl hurried in the direction it came from, leading her towards a partially closed bedroom door.

Out of habit she politely knocked on the frame before letting herself in. "Hello?"

A shiver passed over her as she glanced around the room, gaze crossing over the drifts in the corners of the room. There were two unlit candles on the bedside table that looked as though they were lit recently, as well as a stuttering torch lamp whose batteries seemed to be straining to function. The bed looked lumpy, and Botan rushed over to it once she recognized the sea green hair and pale limbs sprawled across it.

"Yukina? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." The ice apparition stretched a hand to her, palm out, as if to prevent Botan from getting closer. She was stripped to her red hiyoku, and her hair was fanned around her face, lose from its commonly present ribbon.

"What in the Three Realms is going on? Is this all your doing?"

"I'm sorry," Yukina replied, downcast. "I wanted to leave before this could happen."

"Are you hurt at all?" Botan kneeled at the bedside, taking Yukina's hand as her expression shifted.

"No..." Confusion was growing evident on the maiden's face. "You… you can't tell?"

"Tell what?"

"I'm in heat."

"Oh!" Botan replied simply. Then, as she watched Yukina, fidgeting minutely and face flushed on the sheets, the full implication of the maiden's statement dawned on her. "Oh…"

"I would have gone somewhere else, but I didn't want to see anyone, and it came on so quick, and-"

"It's okay, Yukina! That is a completely understandable reason. We were worried that some nefarious ice demon was trying to move into Human World."

"I'm sorry," Yukina repeated, and despite the cold sinking under her skin Botan felt like the ice apparitions' bashful apology could melt hearts. It was easy to forgive someone so sweet.

"It really is fine. This sort of weather fluctuation happens all the time in Canada. The humans can make their own excuses. Besides, it's like having Christmas all over again!"

Yukina nodded and then curled in on her side. The poor girl looked rather resigned.

"I'm going to give Koenma an update," Botan stated in her normal tones. "Do you want me to get you anything in particular?"

"No, thank you."

"Okay. If the kettle works I'll put that on." She gave Yukina a pat on her hands, softened by the gloves she still wore, before retreating to the kitchen.

As it turned out the power in the cabin seemed to be faltering under the strain of the cold, and the electric kettle would turn itself off after a few seconds. Botan's compact communicator had no problems reaching a connection to Spirit World, so while the ferry girl explained the delicate situation to Koenma she readied the fireplace for its intended use. It wasn't until after she disconnected and managed to get a small blaze going that Botan remembered her oar on the roof.

"Oh well, not like I was going anywhere anytime soon."

She set snow in a pot on a cooking stand over the fire and left to find a washroom to clean up in. Though the mirror was iced over Botan did what she could to wipe away the soot from her face, using the cleanest parts of her scarf to accomplish the task.

When the water began to boil she brewed the tea, then set out again to find some blankets. Warmth was beginning to spread through her as she moved about the place, the tingling sensation she hadn't realized set in earlier beginning to abate. Once the tea was ready she brought the pot and cups on a tray to the master bedroom, placing the arrangement carefully on the table before returning for the blankets to wrap around herself while the two drank.

"I hope you don't mind me staying with you here. I know you would probably want to be alone right now."

Yukina shook her head. "I don't mind. I'm a little glad for it, though I must admit part of that is because you aren't affected by this."

"Different species," Botan said, waving a now bare hand. The tea was doing wonders for heating her body. "Though I am curious, I thought ice apparitions reproduced asexually."

"We do, but we will experience this sometime before our immaculate conceptions… Like human adolescence, I suppose. And… we're not exclusively asexual." She took a sip of tea, looking less embarrassed. "It's happened before, with my mother."

Botan felt guilty for already knowing this part of Yukina's history, but she kept her mouth shut as the maiden talked about the possibility of Hiei's birth. More tea was poured as the conversation moved topics, from Yukina's general age, to Botan's, to the ferry girl's resilience to the cold, and Botan could see the distractive company had helped. The more they talked about less related things the more it resembled something like how their normal interactions played out.

During their talk Botan moved her bundled self from the floor to the mattress across from Yukina, and then closer so they were side-by-side. The sun began to lower from its noon peak, the already dim light penetrating through the clouds darkening more so.

Sometime later Botan's stomach rumbled, so they moved to the kitchen to prepare something from the canned goods left in the cupboards.

While their makeshift meal cooked Botan went on another hunt, this time for clean clothes to change into. The fire had done wonders to the common room; the snow carpet was gone and some of the ice on the windows had melted. A closer inspection revealed that it wasn't worth trying to open yet, as beyond the glass was a vision of millions of snowflakes packed close against it.

"Hey, Yukina?"

"Yes Botan?"

"Do you by any chance know how long the storm is going to go on for?"

"It's already stopped," Yukina said as she joined Botan at the window. "Oh."

"We're a little stuck, but that's okay!" Botan added when Yukina frowned. "I'm sure it's not as bad in the city."

"Botan, you don't have to spare my feelings." The maiden turned towards the ferry girl, a determined look in her eye. "How bad was it before?"

"You managed to coat the countryside with winter," Botan answered after a moment of hesitation. She wrapped an arm around Yukina's shoulders, intent on making her feel better. "If the storm stopped then that means the weather is recovering, right?"

Yukina blushed at the contact, but didn't pull away. "It stopped because you're with me," she confided quietly.

"Hmm?"

Yukina turned so they were facing each other, Botan's arm sliding from her. "You're here, calming me down, and you're… it's helped so much. And I am really sorry, Botan. I didn't want this to be such a big thing."

"It's all right Yukina-"

"I mean it," the maiden interjected, folding her hands at her chest. "I just really wish… I wish I didn't have to go through this thing with my body…"

"Oh, Yukina."

"It's not just the mating ritual," she confessed apprehensively, and Botan waited for her to gather her thoughts. "I'm not interested in males like that at all, but, not like the other ice apparitions…"

"And that's perfectly fine!" The maiden blinked up at Botan's assertion. "You're allowed to be your own demon, regardless of how you might feel about stuff like that. And hey, at least this is seasonal, right? According to Shizuru, humans have to experience their cycles every twenty-eight days! How awful would that be?"

"Oh goodness…" Yukina conceded.

"Besides, I may not have to experience any bodily cycles, but that doesn't mean I don't have an idea of what it's like to like or not like someone based on biology." Botan huffed out openly, her head tilted and her ponytail weighing to the side. "Does that make sense?"

The other girl seemed to ponder that statement before nodding.

Botan pulled Yukina towards her for a hug, resting her cheek against mint green hair as she clarified, "I get it. I don't quite fancy males myself. Girls have, and are, more fun."

The ferry girl smiled as she felt slighter arms reach around her. Yukina nodded once more into Botan's shoulder, which was answer enough for her.

"So," Botan started as the moment passed, "let's finish making supper and see if we can find something to do around here."

The meal wasn't horrible given that it ended up being a plain vegetable medley in soup form complemented with a box of crackers they found. Afterwards they walked through the halls, feet kicking up much smaller snow swirls behind them, the energy of the place less abrasive now than it was earlier. When she remarked on it to Yukina the ice apparition smiled.

"It's because I'm comfortable with you. I have better control of myself."

The two searched the rest of the cabin, finding a stash of human games. They deliberated over some of them before settling on simple puzzles. The table was cleared and they got to work on putting pictures together, recreating images that were so telling of Genkai's tastes.

Sitting in her borrowed pajama's, Botan watched as Yukina enacted her effective strategy of going for the outside pieces first. Heat from the fireplace spread further and more prominently into the building, warming them to the point of overheating the ferry girl in her seat of decorative throw blankets.

Three completed pictures and another pot of tea later and the pair were ready for sleep. It was only early evening by Botan's reckoning, but between her difficult arrival and the strain of enduring the cold, and Yukina's energy exertion to create and withhold the blizzard outside, the two girls were exhausted.

Botan hauled her blankets into the master bedroom while Yukina tended to the fire.

"I have to ask," Botan began when she returned to the living room. "You're not bothered by the heat are you? Because if you are, we can put the fire out."

"No, it's alright," Yukina said as she racked the coals together. "I don't mind it. My body has been trying to project my power, but it doesn't affect how I feel temperature."

"Is it an ice apparition thing? I've heard stories that the Glacial Village is constantly shrouded in blizzards."

"That's part of it..." Yukina put the iron poker aside and sat back on her heels.

Botan joined her in front of the fireplace, appreciating the different ways the maiden's face seemed to brighten in the flickering light. She offered her hand, which Yukina took without hesitation, and Botan marvelled at how warm it felt.

"The apparitions let their powers loose, similar to the way mine were today, to protect the island. There's an initiation for any of us beginning it, in which we devote ourselves to the village."

"But, that means you're missing out on that now."

"I prefer it this way," Yukina's voice brightened, and Botan thinks she understands the heavier message underneath, that Yukina wasn't going to try to be like her species. The maiden laced their fingers together in a way Botan didn't consider particularly platonic. "I decided a while ago that I wasn't ever going back. There's nothing for me there."

Botan took Yukina's other hand in hers and pressed their shoulders together. "I'm glad, as selfish as that might sound."

"I'm glad too." Yukina pressed back, letting her head rest against Botan's arm.

Lethargically they moved to the bed, wrapping a blanket around them both and throwing an extra comforter over the bottom half of the bed. Arms and legs quickly became tangled around each other's bodies until they settled, and Botan was once again surprised that Yukina's feet weren't colder where they bumped into hers.

She reached out to put the poor torch out of its misery for the night and turned back towards Yukina. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Botan."

-—-—-

"Wait, what do you mean Yukina was behind this?" Kuwabara cried over Yusuke and Kurama's shoulders.

"Exactly that," Koenma asserted from his side of the little screen. "Botan is with her now, at Genkai's property."

"She's okay right? They're both okay?"

"They're fine. I'm assuming better than, if Yukina is controlling her power again."

"Jeez," Yusuke muttered, eyeing the half-melted mess that was Kuwabara's street outside.

The storm had peaked and settled and started to reverse over the past day, the temperature climbing and snow melting into a dirty slush by the next morning. The meteorologists had argued over what had caused it, though they agreed it was some sort of "isolated cold pocket", but Yusuke's vote was with the guy who claimed alien intervention.

"Maybe we should get Yukina in on our tournament-"

"Don't even think about it Urameshi! Yukina is far too kind and sweet for that!"

"Yeah right! Were you not here when that storm rolled in…"

Kurama leaned closer as the other two fought over the art of chivalry. "Koenma, I've had a theory about what might have caused this…"

"And I'm sure it's accurate, Kurama. But that's Botan and Yukina's business."

"I see," the redhead said neutrally, the slightest smile pulling at his lips. "Very well."

He disconnected the conversation while the other two continued to yammer at each other. Shizuru came in bearing a tray of hot chocolate, a knowing look on her face.

"I wonder if Yukina knows Botan enjoys the cold," she says after Kurama thanks her for a cup.

"I wonder if Botan knows what it means for Yukina's power to be brought under control again so quickly."

"They're smart girls. I'm sure they'll figure it out together if they haven't already," Shizuru replied.

Kurama nods, sipping his beverage while his friends made a mess of Kazuma's room.


End file.
